Academicism-Intellectualism, A Dangerous Influence on the Mass Movement

Originally published in Vanguardia Proletaria, organ of the Communist Party of Mexico (Marxist-Leninist), November 13, 2018.

Translated by Red Phoenix staff.

Historically, academia and the intelligentsia have played an important role in the social field, because they assume two positions: Either to safeguard the interests of the bourgeoisie or fight for the emancipation of the proletariat. A host of intellectuals and academics, regardless of their class origin, bourgeois, petty-bourgeois, proletarian, semi-proletarian, claim Marxism-Leninism, linked to the mass movement, as theory and practice for the radical transformation of society.

However, there are also other sectors of academics and intellectuals who betray these principles because they are detached from mass movements, and when they join, they do so with opportunistic tendencies, which strengthen their gentrification in the political and ideological spheres. When all is said and done, they are elements that play the establishment game within their zones of influence — the academy in this case. For that very reason they have earned the nickname “mercenaries of knowledge,” because, despite their oral and written defense of just causes, they are, in fact, subordinated to the government system, both inside and outside the universities, in exchange for grants, bonuses, funding, spaces, travel, and other financing that are the product of the opportunism that characterizes them.

Hence, their interest in addressing social issues in the abstract; practically omitting the most pressing issues of their work places and study centers. Our obligation as Marxist-Leninist communists, social fighters, critical groups and democratic collectives, is to unmask those harmful practices that stun the mass movement in general, and the students/teachers in particular, because failure to do so would continue to damage to the revolutionary process; and will continue to augment the sectarianism, careerism, opportunism, bossism, economism, and narrow guild-mentality which has led to revisionism serving as a bastion of capitalism and the financial oligarchy to undermine socialism, communism and the best traditions of struggle emanating from the workers and peoples on a national and international scale.